1 month ago
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The moment calls for all the strategic and robust force that can be harnessed and brought to bear on the Senate, on whose judgment may well depend the nation’s chance to rid its life of the mephitic Dutertes once and for all
There appears a resurgence of street activism lately. But while it’s a good thing in itself, its potency tends to dissipate because the participating groups, being disunited, are bereft of common purpose, direction, and strategy.
The rallies last week are a case in point. The three major ones were held on the same day (January 31), but in different places in the metropolis; they promoted the same causes, but either differed on which cause to focus on or put them all out there, smorgasbord-fashion.
I went to the two near me, on the same stretch of road and within only a kilometer of each other — at the People Power monument and the EDSA Shrine. The one across town, at Liwasang Bonifacio, in Manila, I skipped, but kept track of, and I learned that its own crowd was comparable with the other two. The credible estimate for each crowd was a few thousand strong; if only all of them had come together, the rallyists would have made a truly impressive mass.
Only the group at the People Power site carried a single cause — impeach Vice President Sara Duterte. It was led by Magdalo, the party-list that had evolved from a brotherhood within the military. The two other groups, one progressivists, the other moderates who took their cue from the more civic-spirited among the Catholic bishops, also called for impeachment, but that was just one cause in their lists, and not necessarily the main one. Two other causes, one to do with the grossly inequitable national budget, the other with official corruption in general, competed for attention with impeachment, which I myself thought the cause deserving the most urgent attention, as such requiring the most urgent pushing.
Apparently doubtful whether to impeach was wise politics, President Marcos had come out against it. And presumably under the sway of his cousin the Speaker, Martin Romualdez, the House of Representatives sat on the three articles of impeachment filed with it. In the end, no longer able to resist the snowballing sentiment among the public at large, as the polls showed, the House finally, on Wednesday, voted to impeach and on the same day sent the case to the Senate for trial.
On trial, Sara Duterte will be forced to sit down and listen and be subject to rules. She will have to leave at home that typical disdainful arrogance she has been getting away with, the very attitude she put on full display to accentuate her refusal to appear, let alone answer questions, at the House investigation into hundreds of millions of taxpayer pesos taken corruptly from her office’s budget.
The crime required little or no proving. It was covered up with obviously manufactured receipts and revealed in all its crudity in live broadcasts of the hearings. The Senate must feel pressured. The trial could work as another round of provocation of popular outrage. Still, given the canine loyalty to the Dutertes of some senators and the personal agendas of others that make them take the same side, coming up with the two-thirds vote (16 of 23 individual votes) required to convict will be no cinch.
It should help if Sara’s father, Rodrigo, the former president, makes good his threat to act as counsel in her defense. His aberrant mind should be reassuring to the prosecution. Himself called to hearings in both houses of Congress, he incriminated himself scarcely persuaded; for one thing, he owned to death-squad murders, saving prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, some of the trouble putting together their case against him. He is accused in that court of “crimes against humanity” for the tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs.
In any case, with the Dutertes, although, or, rather, especially since, they are likely feeling cornered, taking any chances could prove costly. In Sara Duterte’s hands rests the family’s possibly last chance at bouncing back to power. Her exoneration could give the Duterte camp time to regroup for a viable presidential run by her in 2028.
Politics is said too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. Imagine rendering justice.
Hopefully, the lesson of the moment is not lost on our street activists. The issue of prioritizing causes having been rendered irrelevant, fatefully, by Sara Duterte’s impeachment and imminent trial, they could now postpone their quarrels and, as they wish, resume them later, at a time of the nation’s convenience.
This is definitely not the time. The moment calls for all the strategic and robust force that can be harnessed and brought to bear on the Senate, on whose judgment may well depend the nation’s chance to rid its life of the mephitic Dutertes once and for all.
A vigil for justice is what the moment calls for concretely, with as many of the citizenry as are able coming out, standing guard, and making sure the right thing is done. It’s a grave matter of patriotic and moral duty. It’s EDSA all over again, but this vigil will take far longer than a mere few days and nights, and that’s because the lesson of EDSA has gone unlearned for too long.
But wait, we could be getting ahead of ourselves. The Senate doesn’t seem inclined to hop to it, judging by the remarks made by its president, Francis Escudero, upon receiving the impeachment complaint.
Sounding as if the complaint had come as a total surprise to him and would mess up his life if he inserted it in his schedule, he said Congress was set to go on a break and would not be reconvening until June 2. He added that, anyway, he did not think the impeachment trial of the second highest official of the land, the one who is to step up once the president becomes incapacitated, the sort of business the Senate should work overtime for.
What’s with Escudero?
Surely that’s a fair question to ask. It goes to our very own Senate president’s sense of public duty; it goes to his appreciation of the pulse of the people and his order of priorities, not to mention his work ethic.
It seems our vigil for justice can’t wait one moment longer to be mounted. – Rappler.com
